Some may say - A game which you can play with friends!
Some with more knowledge may say "a game that has a very gentle learning curve, easy-to-understand UI, and lives on a social network,taking advantage of your friendships in meaningful ways within the game."
Some trying to be politically correct may say “games played via social media like Facebook”
And some trying to be more technically correct may say "it’s a game with several of the following characteristics:
- Asynchronous
- Involves some for of interaction with friends (even if it’s just visiting their “game state”)
- Probably free
- Some kind of persistent game state
- Platform
- Time as a resource"
But what is a "Social Game" from the players point of view. Lets consider I pick any "Social" game on FB. what is the first thing that i get to do once i log into to the game!
- Nice company splash screen provided the company has the time to put it there!
- A welcome note saying "Tadaaaaa!!! you will have amazing fun playing this game"
- Next thing you do is follow a not so great tutorial (there are few exceptions though) which tells you what to do in the game!
- You complete the initial Goal! "Tadaaa!!! now you get the hang of it and continue playing"
It sounds pretty ok so far! but wait..what happens next! you complete a set of initial goals and you start having fun and liking the game! sounds interesting and exciting isn't it! you wish!!!
OK! so what am i talking about! yes you are right i am referring to CASH! CASH! CASH! be it virtual or real! One thing the every game on FB or Mobile with a social tag to it does the moment you start enjoying the game is to suck money out of its players!
Having said that not every game does this! there are games on Facebook and Mobile which let you have as much fun even if you are not a premium player!
Taking the "Fun" Out of Games!
Notifications play an active role in driving people back to the game, and when they get back to the games, the users inevitably find out that their fish, crops, properties, mafia, zoo, etc has been eaten, withered, robbed, attacked, unfed, or worse, driving them to engage with the game again to repair the damage and return to some state. But, if you add in the ‘just spend money to make it better’ routine, users are conditioned into a new mindset – that returning to the game means that they need to spend money.
Something that was once fun suddenly became something that costs money, still needed attention, and would continue to drag on their wallets for the visible future. Having worked in payments and commerce, I would argue that this is turning into an avoidable recurring payment. Who wants more financial responsibility, especially now?
So! YOU should not play Social Games on FB & Mobile?
No! I would be wrong in saying or suggesting this! we should play games for various reason and there are lots of games to choose from! not every game out there is waiting to suck the money out of YOU! "Draw Something" is one of those games which lets you have a lot of fun with friends and which is truly social in Nature and now by the recent Zynga acquisition the game has all the more Social features, one of them is - you can send a message to you friend commenting about the drawing once you have finished guessing
So! Am I saying that Co's shouldn't make money out Us through their Games?
No! They can and they should! end of the its a Business Model which generates revenue for the companies invested time and money.
While Facebook needs it cut, and Zynga deserves respect for continuously testing and incrementally improving their games, the addition of revenue and incentives is a delicate matter that should not be taken lightly. Innovation in game play is important, but innovation in ways to nag users into paying can have disastrous effects when user have the choice, ability, and inclination to say ‘no’. I look forward to Zynga applying more game innovation to draw users back. I don’t know if my friends will come back and play, but give them a good reason to, and maybe they will.
